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Thursday, July 3, 2014

Collecting mozzies in the Alps

They may spread zoonotic diseases, but Italian mozzies hang out in classy places.

When I mentioned that I
was popping overseas to catch mozzies in Italy, a few people rolled their eyes.
“What kind of holiday is that?” “Why go all that way to catch mozzies?” Well,
peeps, let me tell you. Italian mosquitoes hang in some pretty fine places (some of them also carry West Nile virus - a disease one really wants to avoid. More on that here).

Luca and Fabrizio with a car full of mosquito traps (mozzies are attracted by dry ice as it releases CO2).

Fabri places a mosquito trap at a pre-selected location.

And the best way to catch
them, as it happens, is to sit quietly eating a margherita pizza and sipping Prosecco
(alcohol is a vasodilator) in the Dolomites whilst a friendly entomologist
stands by with a special miniature vacuum cleaner ready to suck the offending
mosquito from one’s limbs the moment it lands. This is done for thirty minutes
a sitting, three times in three hours. Along with my Italian colleague Dr
Patrizia Danesi, I had the honour of being the bait, or the “human landing” as
she calls it.

Fabrizio demonstrates the mosquito vacuum. We have great faith that this sucks faster than mozzies can bite.

Trying to explain this
arrangement to locals when one does not speak Italian is something of a
challenge. Our mosquito catching site was outside of an isolated cabin
belonging to the Alpini Brigade – a branch of the Italian army specialising in
mountain combat.

It happened that we were
attempting to lure mozzies outside of an Alpini HQ on their meeting night. My
Italian colleagues explained what we were up to, and there was much laughter.
We were invited in for a coffee with home brewed grappa. Of course, when one’s
vocabulary is so limited, one can only respond in the affirmative. One grappa
coffee and several shots of home-brewed limoncello later, we still had not
caught any mozzies. But we slept well!

Mozzies hang out here. Also a nice place for a quiet drink.

Today’s mission is to
present a seminar on desexing dogs in remote communities in Australia. This is
quite topical as the moment I landed in Italy it became very apparent that
desexing is not routine. Let’s just say my eyes are trained to assess certain
features of canine anatomy which are particularly prevalent here. I asked my
hosts if there is a problem with overpopulation (especially in the light of
this overabundance of gonads) and they replied in the affirmative.

The rules for the Dolomites are also a great way to brush up on useful Italian phrases that you can drop into conversation.

So I am keen to learn more
about population control over here. (If you’re interested in another
perspective on birth control check out this post).

Veterinary Ethics: Navigating Tough Cases

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